Once a year, Nuffer, Smith, Tucker gets together for its annual staff retreat. It’s a time when we reflect on the past year, discuss trends in our industry and look toward our future. This year (Dec. 4), we reviewed our vision, mission, core values and ethics policy, before spending the afternoon doing team building exercises.  NST president Bill Trumpfheller also talked about what’s ahead in 2010, in a discussion that included Snuggies and optimism.

“It’s been a year of chaos,” said Bill, who noted that many PR agencies endured staff cuts and salary reductions (NST thankfully not included). “But I’m optimistic about the future. There is growth opportunity, particularly with social media … and PR is poised to drive this growth.”

Social media was a hot topic at the retreat, as we discussed the need to remain strategic not only in our social media efforts, but in everything we do.

Bill also reminded the team of some important milestones this year: we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of Dairy Council of California as a client, the 15th anniversary of McDonald’s of San Diego County as a client, and 15 years representing WD-40 Company.

So how do Snuggies fit in? Well, anyone who works at NST can tell you that our office suffers from a bit of a temperature control issue, causing many people on the staff to be donning winter coats and heating pads at their desks. Each year at the retreat, we also get a staff present. This year, management decided a Snuggie with the Nuffer, Smith, Tucker logo was the perfect solution. While an untraditional gift, I think many people on the team were secretly filled with joy.